Taken by the Others (17 page)

Devon turned to me questioningly, hooking a thumb at the back seat. “Where do you want me to take him?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, giving in to suddenly overwhelming fatigue. The stress combined with lack of sleep was catching up with me. “Wherever.”

I could feel his eyes on me, the unspoken concern radiating from him making me uncomfortable, but I was too tired and worn out to think of a better answer. He put the car in gear and started driving.

An irritating buzzing sound was coming from the bag at my feet. I cracked open my eyes and leaned down to open up the duffel. Someone was calling Chaz’s phone from a restricted number. Since he wasn’t in any condition to take the call, I answered it for him.

“Hello, this is Chaz’s phone.”

There was talking in the background, like a restaurant, punctuated by a whisper of breathing lingering on the line. A click, and the call was lost. Weird. Shrugging it off, I twisted in the seat to look at Chaz. “Do you mind if I use it?”

He gave a noncommittal sound which I took for affirmative. I scrolled through the contacts until I found Sara.

“Chaz?”

“No, it’s me,” I said. “Hey, do you have a safe place we can drop him off while he’s furry?”

“He’s furry? Hell if I know.” She went quiet, considering, then apparently registered what I said. “Wait a sec. ‘We'? Who’s ‘we'?”

“A new friend.”

“Great. A vamp? Or a Were?”

“Neither.”

“A mage?”

“Nope.”

“Will you stop fooling around?” she complained, impatience lacing her voice. I couldn’t help but grin. “Who the heck is helping you with Chaz when he’s shifted?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. You’ll meet him soon; just tell me where we can go that isn’t your place, my place, or the office.”

“Janine would have a heart attack if she saw him. Your parents’ place is out of the picture. Which reminds me, I think your mom called me looking for you. I missed it while I was driving. Let me ask Arnold if we can hide out at his place. I doubt anyone will come looking for us there.”

That sounded like the best idea I’d heard all day. No doubt, both the vampires would have people searching for me. Royce might make a go for Sara since he knew she was my business partner and closest friend. One of us always knew where the other was. “Go for it, let me know what he says. Call me back on Chaz’s cell.”

“Got it. I’ll call back in five.”

“Oh, hey, before you go, can you also ask him if I can crash if I need to?”

“Sure.”

I stuck the phone in the coffee holder and dug around in my pockets, looking for the Post-it with Royce’s number. I didn’t want to talk to him, but I also did not want to start the business week tomorrow with worries of a crazy vampire sending his daytime agents to my office to kill or kidnap me. The last thing I wanted was to have our office building go up in magefire. Sara would kill me herself.

Hiding out tonight sounded great in theory, but I knew if I ignored the problem and tried to avoid Max, he’d figure out some way to find me again. Quite possibly in person, seeing how his lackeys did such a shitty job of convincing me to play nice. Plus, Royce might decide he liked the idea of using his not inconsiderable resources or powers of persuasion to force me into playing his way instead of leaving me to choose my own path.

I dug the piece of paper out and dialed Royce’s office. The cheerful receptionist greeted me.

“Hi, this is Shiarra Waynest again. Is Mr. Royce available, or is he still in that meeting?”

“I’ll check,” she said, far too chipper for my taste. “Hold on just a sec for me.”

Once again, “just a sec” translated into “for-freaking-ever.” My wait was rewarded with that familiar, smooth voice, though I had to fight not to cringe when he spoke. Far too tantalizing to the senses, unspoken promises behind the words making me squirm uncomfortably in my seat.

“Shiarra, I’m glad you called. There are things we must discuss, preferably not over the phone.”

What was so bloody important that he always needed to see me in person instead of telling me over the phone?

“I didn’t call to set up a meeting. I called to find out if Max is still alive.”

“Yes. That’s part of what we need to talk about.”

“I’ll say,” I muttered, forcing myself to put my free hand back down in my lap once I realized I was unconsciously rubbing the bite marks on my throat. “Can’t the meeting wait? I called to find out if you know where Max might be lying low. I need to find the bastard.”

A long, incredulous pause stretched over the line. Glad I’ve got it in me to shock a vamp who’s been around since before Christ was born. “I wouldn’t advise that,” he said after a long pause, his words spoken very carefully. “I am worried someone may be following you–an agent of his. Before you bring them back to your friends, it may be best if you come to one of my offices. I can provide a measure of protection.”

“A lot of people are following me just now. There are reporters from every newspaper, magazine, and TV station from here to Jersey on my ass.”

He went quiet again. Gee, I was rendering people speechless a lot these days. Rapid tapping on a keyboard was followed by amused laughter. “I see. All the better. Come to The Underground. Security will keep the press at bay, and we can speak in my office.”

“No freaking way.”

“Oh, come now,” he said, lightly cajoling. “You know you could not ask for better protection than for the leading vampire of New York to take you under his wing.”

“Who will protect me from you?” I shot back before I could rethink the words coming out of my mouth.

“I suppose my actions have been more forthright than usual.”

“Forthright is not exactly the term I would have used. I’d say you were being a pushy bastard who needs to stay the fuck away from me and all of my friends. Why’d you sic the cops on Chaz?”

“You have good reason to be wary of me, but I don’t know what you’re referring to about your boyfriend. What happened?”

I was not appeased by how easily he agreed with me or the apparent puzzlement and dumb act he was playing. “Fine, you want to play that game? I won’t meet with you until I know it’s safe. Oh, wait, that’s never.”

“You do make things difficult.” I bristled at his laughter, knowing he found me trying to keep my ass out of the fire amusing. “All right, how about this. Why don’t you choose the place we meet? Would that make you feel safer?”

“Barely.”

“Where?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know yet. Let me call you back.”

“I’ll be away from my office for a bit. You can ask for John if I’m not back by the time you call. Or you can use my cell phone.”

I bit back on the temptation to ask him where he was going to be and just wrote down the number to the cell as he recited it. Would he be plotting more ways to get Chaz out of the picture? Meeting with his friends at the police station?

Feeding on someone?

“Are you still there?”

“Yeah,” I answered shakily, not sure why. “Fine. I’ll ask for you first, but if you’re not there, I’ll call John. Do you have the number I’m calling from on your caller ID?”

“Yes.”

“That’s Chaz’s cell phone. I’ll have it with me for now. You can call me if something comes up.”

“Good. Don’t wait too long to call, there is a lot to discuss and more that we will need to do tonight.”

“What? Okay, whatever. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

I stared at the phone after I hung up. Devon was studiously avoiding looking at me. “What happened to going back to Jack’s?” he asked.

For no reason I could readily put my finger on, I was annoyed. Guess it was better than being scared of a voice on the phone. “We’re still going back to Jack’s. We’re just going to have to take two side trips, is all.”

“Two? Look, I don’t–”

He was interrupted by an unladylike yelp startled out of me when the phone started vibrating. Even Chaz made an amused sound. I glared at them before picking up the call from Sara.

“Arnold’s okay with Chaz coming over. He said to warn him ahead of time as he needs to wait in the hall until Arnold can escort him past the shields.”

“Great, we’ll be there in a bit.”

After I hung up, we continued on in silence. I didn’t want to talk, Chaz couldn’t, and Devon was focused on driving. Every now and again I gave some directions, but that was all. Devon didn’t find his voice again until we’d made our way to Greenwich Village.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why aren’t you afraid of Royce? Why do you work with him?”

That brought my gaze to focus solidly on him instead of the passing streets. He was concentrating intently on the road, not sneaking glances at me like before. It took a minute to think up an answer he would accept. Or one I would accept, for that matter. “If you think I’m not scared of him, you haven’t been paying attention. He terrifies me. I work with him because I don’t have a choice. Or rather, the choice of working with him is better than the alternative.”

“Better than working with the White Hats?”

I was surprised at how bitter he sounded. “I’m working with him and the White Hats. Why, what’s wrong with that?”

“Aside from the fact that he’s our number one target, nothing, I suppose.”

Ah. “Look, I’m not going to betray you guys to him. I’m unofficially one of you right now. Jack’s the one who wanted me on the team, so all of them, including you, are going to have to accept that I deal with the Others. I mean, come on. I’m dating a Were. There’s no way Jack didn’t know that before he started trying to recruit me. It’s not like it’s a big secret or something. And dealing with Royce? He’s known about that, too. I also have mage friends at The Circle–so just relax and try not to get too worked up about it.”

He lapsed back into silence, not answering me. I didn’t feel the need to continue explaining myself to him either. Aside from directions, I kept my mouth shut.

After a bit, he spoke up again. “I still see a bunch of reporters behind us. Are you sure you want to lead them to wherever we’re going?”

Grumbling irritably under my breath, I glanced in the side mirror and cursed when I saw all the news vans behind us. I’d for the most part successfully forgotten about them, having hoped they’d lose interest and leave us alone. We couldn’t lead them back to Arnold’s or Jack’s. Where could we go?

I gritted my teeth and looked down at the phone in my hand, once more finding myself considering turning to Royce for help. God, I hated how much it felt like he was herding me. Once again, manipulating me indirectly into doing exactly what he wanted. He was right in that he could keep the press away if we went to one of the clubs. Arnold and Jack couldn’t promise the same and didn’t need trouble like this showing up on their doorstep. If my location continued to be broadcast on the news, Max would find me in no time.

On the other hand, Royce could be planning something bad to do to me and quite possibly had a hand in the damage done to Chaz. If we showed up at The Underground, I couldn’t leave Chaz behind and wouldn’t be able to return to the White Hats. Chaz was in no shape to protect himself. Royce’s reaction to Devon wasn’t going to be friendly either. The vampire would never be so crass as to make an attempt on their lives where I would see it, but that didn’t mean we’d be totally safe with him. I’d have to stay until Chaz was well enough to leave. God only knew how long that would take. Hilarious as the thought might be, if we went to The Underground, I’d have to be Chaz’s bodyguard against Royce.

Resigned, I turned to Devon. “I know this isn’t the greatest idea, but Royce offered to meet me at one of his clubs. Maybe we can do that and wait there until Chaz recovers enough to shift back. The reporters should be gone by then.”

Chaz growled, low and threatening. He didn’t like the idea. Devon looked as happy about it as I felt. “No way. We just saved you from a vamp last night, I can’t just hand you back to them. Jack would kill me. Besides, didn’t you say it was one of his people who tipped off the cops?”

I slumped lower in the seat, staring straight ahead. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I just said I’d meet with him, which is something I have to do regardless.”

“Why?” Devon demanded, sounding angrier than Chaz.

Their anger was spurring my own. “Because he’s the only one who knows how to find Max Carlyle. I’m not going to sit around and wait for Max or one of his flunkies to come after me again. I’m going to find the bastard and stop him before he hurts me or someone else. I don’t want him to show up at my office, or go after Sara or my parents or brothers next. Trust me, I like the idea of meeting with Royce again about as much as you do. However, if you’ve got another idea on how to lose those reporters on our tail and find Max before the end of the night, I’m more than willing to hear it.”

Their silence was telling.

Chaz gave a low whine, and I twisted in the seat to look at him, reaching out to rub the side of his jaw. Inhuman as that gaze was, concern was clearly reflected in the icy depths of his eyes.

“I wish I had a better plan,” I said. “For right now, it’s the only chance I’ve got.”